A while back, Warren Meyer of Coyote Blog got into a lengthy description of wealth creation and capitalism.  The overall tone of the blog may be a bit confusing for some, but you can take a great lesson from it.

Meyer stated that strategies for wealth creation often get a negative response because many believe that wealth cannot be created.  As Meyer states, many believe “it can be stolen or taken or moved or looted but not created.”  If this were the case, there would be far fewer entrepreneurs.

Just because your business will generate income and earnings does not mean that someone else in some other country is going without.  The U.S. does compete in a global market, but your business is separate from others and wealth is not fixed at a certain amount or level.  There is no cap to wealth creation.

If you consider where your parents and grandparents came from, how much they worked and how much they earned, you can see that wealth creation is a living, breathing machine.  It’s never stays the same.

So today, take advantage of what opportunities you have and create your own wealth possibilities.  Grab on to your wealth potential and watch it grow.

Everybody in business, even seasoned entrepreneurs, need to focus on always looking for new methods, innovation and ways to do things.

Entrepreneur published an article that outlined one entrepreneur’s journey from start to lull to unbelievable success.

Britt Menzie of Stinky Kids started out painting children’s characters and it flourished into a children’s clothing business.  Then in Spring of 2008 sales stopped climbing and eventually began to decline.

Menzie’s entrepreneurship research told her that during a time when most buyers quit buying pricey items like Stinky Kids t-shirts and hoodies for $28 -$44, it wasn’t that her products weren’t appealing, but people just had to choose between necessities and luxuries.

Menzie decided it was a time to build new business lines and geared her Stinky Kids characters toward more recession friendly products.   She will be releasing a book based upon her Stinky Kids line in 2010 and Nordstrom has already agreed to stock the book and the dolls along with toy store, FAO Schwartz.

Menzie admits that if she hadn’t faced a sales crisis, she never would have expanded her vision to include books and toys.

Remember, just because the economy isn’t doing well doesn’t mean your business has to suffer.  It may be the perfect time to dig deeper and embrace some expanded ideas.

Martin Zwilling, CEO and founder of Startup Professionals, shared some thoughts on what business courses he wishes would have been offered before he was forced to enter the real world.

Some of these “wish list” classes included:

• Basic Accounting and Finance - just because you’re innovative and can run a business doesn’t mean you know anything about accounting.  Even possessing a rudimentary understanding of what you’re worth and how much it costs to run a business can give you enough insight to not be dangerous to yourself.

• Problem Analysis - if you compare a business owner to a homeowner, you know that you are better off if you can at least diagnose a problem.  Knowing where the problem lies and how urgently it needs to be addressed can save you time, money and worry.

• Organizing and Prioritizing - organizing and prioritizing tasks will be the focus of your day to day duties.  Knowing what needs to be done when and how urgent it really is to maintaining customer satisfaction is a must have.

If you’re lacking in any of these areas, there are plenty of online resources to tap into, or you may find them available through a local mentoring group or your local Small Business Administration.

What a pleasant surprise to see someone address customer service as an actual business strategy plan.

Susan Wilson Solovic from All Business wrote a post about using customer complaints as an opportunity to win the customer over, for life.

The article pointed out that customers who have never had a problem with a company are much less loyal than a customer who had a problem with a company but had it satisfactorily resolved.  That statement speaks volumes.

It takes time and energy to make a complaint.  If you don’t care enough to make a complaint (when needed), you probably don’t care if you return to that business or not.   Same goes for your clients.

Solovic gave three tips for taking complaints in stride:

1.    Don’t take it personally - when a customer sounds off, unless you went out of your way to offend them personally, the complaint is not directed at you, so don’t take it to heart.

2.    Listen carefully and with empathy - when someone takes the time to share with you how the service or product was unsatisfactory, they just want some understanding (and maybe an apology).

3.    Thank the customer - because your customers will go out of their way to give you praise and sometimes criticism, thank them, because that takes time and guts.  They have gone out of their way to share their thoughts and feelings, so be gracious with your thanks.

It’s never easy to sit and listen to someone complain about your brain child or the services/products you’ve crafted, but consider it a free consultation.  Getting real feedback with no incentive is valuable and you can hopefully salvage that customer relationship and go forward doing better because now you know better.

Women Entrepreneur recently published an article on the art of conversation and how it makes the sale.

The article made mention of the fact that conversationally savvy women are superior sellers.  When you are able to put someone else at ease the conversation flows more freely and you are able to glean more details from the conversation - and respond - and this can help you make the sale.

The article suggested some tips to help you improve your savvy conversational skills.  Here are just a few:

1.    Become clear about your motive -  Start your conversation out with respect and openness.  Pouncing on your potential clients will only drive them away and expresses to them that you aren’t interested in them only the sale.

2.    Be honest but sympathetic - Being brutally honest – as in telling your customer he or she was stupid for shopping with anyone else but you – is a surefire way to lose customers.

But when you can give them the honest reasons (without offending them) as to why buying from you is smarter, it allows them to let their guard down knowing you aren’t questioning their intelligence; rather you are trying to really help them.

3.    Ask pointed questions to determine how serious or in need they are - When you ask what a potential client is looking for and how you can help get them there, it positions you as someone who can meet those needs and cares about them getting what they want.

Most women have the gift of conversation and can help put others at ease.  If you happen to not be so skilled in the art of good conversation, you can practice.  Being able to connect with others outside of E-mail is a lost art, but it will most certainly enhance your relationships personally and professionally.

Less than 10 years ago many workers were not that concerned with proving their value in the work place.

Now, in a time when economic prosperity is a lesser concern than just surviving in the work place, every employee is having to prove his/her worth in the workplace.  Right now businesses are all about getting the maximum value for every dollar they spend.

All About Living With Life offers three tips to enhance your value in the workplace:

1.    Provide Insightful Input - offering up some valuable feedback, ideas or changes can put you in a more valued position because what you say means something and could mean increased productivity or profits for the company.

2.    Reduce Expenses - making money and saving money are two key components to increasing the overall profits.  When you find tangible ways to cut costs without affecting efficiency, you not only look like a team player but you’re offering something of value to the business proactively.

3.    Adaptability - showing that you’re willing to be flexible, learn and utilize new methods or equipment while still performing your job optimally goes a long way.  Doing these things willingly speaks volumes.

Being recognized as a valuable employee means that you are necessary – that the job wouldn’t get done as well or as quickly without you.  While many are fretting over job security, focus on doing your job well and outperforming everyone else.

Although economic prosperity doesn’t always come when you are performing your job duties well, the likelihood that you’ll be recognized for your stellar work and be rewarded for it is much greater.

Whenever you’ve read financial success stories, there’s always something unique or fortunate about the story or person.  A theme that is usually accentuated is that of hard work.

Bonnie Price from Silver Vixens and blogger for Women Entrepreneur has taken it upon herself to make sure those entrepreneurs and professionals over 55 are recognized for their innovation and hard work.

As Price strives to help others reinvent themselves, some themes were prominent in her writings.

1.    If you want change you’re going to have to be vocal - change does not happen of its own accord.  There must be someone behind the desire to propel a movement of some sort.  Timidly hoping for change will not create the financial success you are looking for.

2.    Baby steps - if you only see and fixate on the big picture, it may seem impossible to make a dent in the work to be done.  Price suggests that focusing on one task at a time will make it easier to be productive and you won’t feel so overwhelmed.

3.    It takes elbow grease - if it wasn’t obvious yet, the main quality that sets those financial success stories apart from the failures is hard work.  Good intentions are great, but following through on those intentions – laboriously ticking things off that list and making change happen takes a lot of effort.

Becoming financially successful doesn’t always work according to a formula - and it isn’t confined to a specific industry - but it does call for unusual behavior.  And answering to a higher calling can be very prosperous.

New “making money ideas” can be completely different for someone who is just starting up as opposed to a business owner who is looking for ways to make more money from what they’re already doing.

IPA Business Today spotlighted Friend’s Plumbing.  In 2003 they had really hit a sweet spot, but the owner, Monty Kosloski, felt overworked and unorganized.  Monty communicated that he knew he was losing money in some areas, but wasn’t quite sure where or what to do about it.

Friend’s Plumbing hired IPA, a management consulting firm, to help them make the needed changes to work more efficiently while continuing to grow.

For most business owners, being hands off is a challenge.  When your money and your business are at stake, delegating tasks to others can make you feel out of touch and out of control.

In Monty’s case, IPA came in and helped him make some organizational changes with programs on computers, with cash flow and even small changes like raising prices by 50 cents.

Within his staff, Monty switched to productivity based incentives.  He quickly noticed that his employees were showing more effort and seemed to care more about their performance and the business as a whole.

In 2008 Friend’s Plumbing had 10% less in sales, but it was their most profitable year ever.  Monty stands by his claim that the overall changes his company made have changed the way he’ll forever do business and reports that he can now focus on working on his business and not so much in his business.

A serial entrepreneur isn’t just someone who starts a business and stays in that business.  Entrepreneur online has found that serial startup is a business all to itself.

Entrepreneur interviewed a few different serial entrepreneurs and found a few common threads.

• They weren’t happy with just owning/managing a business.  They wanted the continual challenge and thrill of watching a business come to life.

• They recognize that industry knowledge is crucial, but it doesn’t have to come from them.  Working alongside or employing other sharp professionals who are knowledgeable about the industry you want to specialize in can be just what you need for an edge.  Assuming you must possess the relevant information first hand is not true.

• They recognize that the challenge is to be successful in more than one area or industry.  Often serial entrepreneurs will make the leap from one industry to another because remember, possessing the information yourself is not a necessity.

A serial entrepreneur is a professional business go getter.  It takes unique qualities and skills to recognize the potential for a great business and get it up and running.  If you have the entrepreneurial itch, but don’t enjoy the idea of seeing a business past the initial startup phase, then you may be a serial entrepreneur.

Building and growing a business online is a real opportunity that businesses are investing in every day.

According to Marketing Tips there are 5 big ways to make money online.

1.    Affiliate Products - As an affiliate, you sell another business’ products and you get a percentage of the sales.  There is no need to stock product or pay for shipping.

2.    Sell A Service - This could look like a thousand different business types, but consider what you do now and determine if you can provide that as a service online.  There are virtually no limits here – any business any size could provide a service online.

3.    Electronic Products - This could be as simple as an E-book, which can be resold over and over again.

4.    Paid Subscriptions Or Memberships - If you are part of an industry where you have access to information that changes rapidly, oftentimes people will pay you for the delivery of the relevant information.   Developing and making available a membership site where you help members connect is also a business in itself.

5.    Physical Products - Selling a tangible product is something that is done all over the world through millions of companies.

This is most certainly not an exhaustive list of ways to make money online.  Finding your niche or specific product can be the real challenge.  Making sure there is a demand for the product or service up front is essential to finding an profitable market.